Dive Details

Location

Date

Monday 2 January 2017

Time

9:30am - 11:12am

Details

My first dive of 2017 (I had to work on New Years Day) had to be at my favourite dive site, The Leap. It was relatively calm and even though it was mid tide we were able to get in from the low platform. Visibility on the surface looked to be around 5 metres. We descended and swam at around 30° to the sand line arriving near Lucy and Bob Rock. Visibility here was probably 10 metres but it was difficult to tell because of a massive school of sea jellies (just the translucent golfball sized ones) that stretched all the way to Bent Stick Rock. The temperature was less than 16° which was unpleasant in a wetsuit. There was almost no surge.

We swam towards The Steps. I kept losing site of Mike and Ron in the sea jellies. At one point I could only just make Mike out and he was only 2 metres away. We swam past Seahorse Rock and the sea jellies started to thin out a bit and by the time we got to Bent Stick Rock there were only a few left.

I found a weedy seadragon on the sand just before Southern Cross Rock. There were still a few jellies here which kept getting between the camera and the weedy. There was a second weedy seadragon early in Seadragon Alley. Mike pointed out an eastern cleaner clingfish with eggs on a tunicate. At the end of Seadragon Alley we saw a third weedy seadragon.

We swam past Big Rock and bumped into Roney at Hand Rock. I found a small male pygmy pipehorse on the rock below Hand Rock and a female on Hand Rock. Ron indicated he'd found two on Big Rock. I swam back to find Mike scratching his head because he couldn't see them. We got Ron to show them to us but all we could see where he pointed was an alga swaying in the surge. I went back to Hand Rock and Mike and Ron continued.

Mike came back to tell me he'd found more pygmy pipehorses. I followed him and he showed me a tiny one and then beckoned me to continue following him. Just before Old Basket Star Rock he pointed out a large red female pygmy pipehorse. He indicated there was a second but we couldn't find it. Mike left me here and I continued to look for the second one. I couldn't find it and did a quick swim around to get my bearings so I could find the rock again. It was a short distance to Old Basket Star Rock. I noticed a weedy seadragon below Old Basket Star Rock and I took photos of it. I then swam back to the pygmy pipehorse to make sure I could find her again. I found her and then immediately found a smaller male just behind her.

I swam on to Old Basket Star Rock again and then in to the basket star's new location. There were two Miamira magnifica nudibranchs on the rock just before the basket star: a small one and an even smaller one.

I was running low on air and was also very cold so I swam to the boulders and started my safety stop as I swam to Split Rock. I finished my safety stop at Split Rock and then headed to the exit. High tide made the exit easy and I just had to stand up and take my fins off.

Buddy

Mike Scotland, Ron Walsh

Seas

Slight surge

Visibility

5 to 10 metres

Duration

102 minutes

Maximum depth

21.3 m

Average depth

14.2 m

Water temperature

15.6°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

Note that tides at dive site may vary from above location.

Low

5:18am

0.52m

High

11:45am

1.74m

Low

6:24pm

0.35m